Toledo’s Blackwell will be new WVU running backs coach

MORGANTOWN — The WVU football team added the missing piece left by Tony Dews when he left for the Tennessee Titans, on Feb. 5.

Marquel Blackwell, the running backs coach at Toledo, will be hired to the same position with the Mountaineers, a source told The Dominion Post.

Blackwell, 38, had back-to-back leading Mid-American Conference rushers in his two seasons with the Rockets. Kareem Hunt, now with the Kansas City Chiefs, had 1,475 yard, in 2016, while Terry Swanson had 1,319 yards last season.

Prior to Toledo, Blackwell was a quality control coach at Florida, working with quarterbacks. He and current WVU quarterback Will Grier were both with the Gators, in 2015.

Blackwell bounced around from the high school ranks in Florida, was the running backs coach at Western Kentucky, in 2012, and worked at his alma mater, South Florida, during two different stints. He began coaching in 2006.

As a quarterback with the Bulls, from 1999-2002, Blackwell threw for 9,108 yards and 57 touchdowns, and had 1,235 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns. He had a brief stint with the New York Jets.